Articles
What is the Eightfold Path?
The Eightfold Path is common to most Buddhist traditions, and secular Buddhists consider the Eightfold Path to be the heart of practice. The Eightfold Path, or path as it’s called, is a guide for areas to explore and practice. There is great wisdom in this path, all of which can be tried out and tested…
Read MoreBuddhas Human and Divine
The early Canon gives us two very different pictures of the Buddha, reflected in his early life. The first I will term the “human Buddha”: it’s a narrative of a real person, Siddhatta Gotama, and his path to enlightenment. The second I will term the “divine Buddha”: it’s a narrative of a superhuman being. These…
Read MoreCultivating Compassion
This is to be done by one skilled in aims Who wants to break through To the state of peace: . . . As a mother would risk her life To protect her child, her only child, Even so should one cultivate a limitless heart With regard to all beings. Khuddakapatha 9, trns Thanissaro Bhikkhu…
Read MoreOut of the Food Chain to Compassion
I’m struggling with aversion. In recent years, I’ve become really bothered by how humanity has just taken over the planet without regard to habitats, and the needs of other animals. I’ve noticed this more because of my photography hobby, where I get out to take nature photos and pix of animals. A few years ago,…
Read MoreWhy Do We Keep Practicing?
I had an email exchange recently with a gentleman who asked some very good questions, and thought it might prompt some helpful discussion here on the site. Names and identity details were removed. Email One To: Webmaster I just got through listening to your interview on Books and Ideas podscast. I … attended the local…
Read MoreMaking Peace in my Own Backyard
I sat and just allowed myself to feel the emotion of anger roiling within my body, tightening my stomach, clenching at my throat. While there was this rush of excitement, the anger itself in the body was distinctly uncomfortable, disconcerting.
Read MoreOn Gutting on Happiness
What really makes us happy? In a New York Times online post, Catholic philosopher Gary Gutting looks with a somewhat jaundiced eye on the nascent discipline of “happiness studies”.* He gives four conditions for happiness, which make for interesting reading and contemplation, particularly from a Secular Buddhist perspective. They are: good luck, fulfilling work, sense…
Read MoreWhat are the Three Marks of Existence?
The Three Marks of Existence is important in Buddhism, because it means we start to see things, situations as they really are. Everything is impermanent, suffering is a part of existence (for living things anyway), and nothing exists in and of itself, without dependencies. The three marks of existence is not an idea or theory…
Read MoreSecular Buddhism, Thin and Thick
There is an important split in the way many of us approach Secular Buddhism. Some of us want a “big tent” form of Secular Buddhism that welcomes believers from any and all faith backgrounds who are looking for a way to incorporate meditative practice within the context of their own views about religion, salvation, God,…
Read MoreDependent Arising in Context, by Linda Blanchard: A Review
In the introduction to Dependent Arising in Context, Linda Blanchard credits the inspiration of Nanavira Thera. One of the first Westerners to become an ordained Theravadin monk, Nanavira’s spirit echoes through Blanchard’s work. Boldly idiosyncratic, driven both by his ferocious intellect and his fervent belief that the Pali canon held wisdom that had been ignored…
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